Shipping Information

Free Shipping on Orders $40+ VIA USPS Priority Mail

AlgaeBarn, LLC offers promotional free shipping on all purchases (excluding items that require overnight shipping such as live fish, live clams, or frozen foods) that subtotal exceeds $40 (not including taxes or fees) and the delivery address is located inside the continental United States of America.
Typically, we ship with USPS Priority Mail. This service tends to take 1-3 days for delivery and may depend on locality. Certain orders may be shipped through FEDEX or UPS when we determine necessary.

$7 Upgrade to UPS 2nd Day Air on Orders $40+

Due to popular demand, we are now offering a significantly discounted UPS 2nd Day Air Guaranteed option. This option is priced at $7 and is available for orders $40+ and with delivery addresses in the continental United States (sorry AK and PR!).
Orders that include sumps or live rock are not eligible. If you choose this option with these items in the cart, it will delay your order and possibly result in order cancelation and refunding.

Weekly Shipping Schedule

Highest Quality

To ensure that you receive the freshest, highest quality product, we generally harvest and package the items the same day we ship them. To minimize the possibility of the product being delayed over the weekend, we ship our products Monday - Wednesday. Don't worry though, if an unforseen shipping delay occurs, we still guarantee it, even if it is the carriers fault!

Orders Placed on

Monday

Before 8AM MST

SHIPS SAME DAY

After 8AM MST

SHIPS NEXT DAY

Tuesday

Before Noon MST

SHIPS SAME DAY

After Noon MST

SHIPS NEXT DAY

Wednesday

Before Noon MST

SHIPS SAME DAY

After Noon MST

SHIPS NEXT Monday

Thursday - Sunday

SHIPS NEXT MONDAY

Alive on Arrival Guarantee

We Guarantee every order we ship to 100% Alive on Arrival - regardless of shipping option!

Our Guarantee

We take the worry out of buying Live Copepods, Phytoplankton, Macroalgae, Inverts, and Captive bred Fish online by going above and beyond to take care of our customers.
That's why we guarantee every order we ship to be 100% Alive on Arrival or we will replace it free of charge. Hooray! We'll even cover the shipping on the replacement no matter which service you chose. Double Hooray!

About Our Policy

When your order arrives, be sure and inspect the contents to ensure everything is looking alive and well before you add them to your tank. Do not put our live copepods in the fridge.
We'll give you 12 hours after delivery to let us know if there is a problem. This should give you plenty of time to inspect the product and make sure you are completely satisfied.

"We will take care of you and make it right!"

If, for any reason, you decide that something isn't quite ultra grade, simply snap a photo of the unopened item(s) that you would like replaced. Be sure to get the barcode label on the product in the photo. After that, visit www.algaebarn.com/claims and submit the form.
We'll review the photo and have a replacement out to you faster than a six-line wrasse at feeding time. Once your replacement order is processed, we'll send you a brand new tracking number automatically. That's it! Pretty simple, right?

Give your tank the love it deserves and order with confidence - AlgaeBarn has your back!

Feeding the Mandarin Fish

For so many aquarists, the green mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus) is a must-have species. Its endearing personality, exquisite finnage and intense coloration rarely fail to impress. Given these highly desirable traits, it has for long been among the most popular marine aquarium fishes. Thus, many thousands of specimens of this species are sold in the ornamental fish trade each year. Most of these are wildcaught. This is unfortunate, as wildcaught individuals have a rather poor record of survivability compared to captive-raised individuals.

Feeding the Mandarin: Wildcaught versus Aquaculture Fish

There are a number of reasons wildcaught mandarin have a lower survival rate than captive bred or aquacultured fish. For one, the mini-spears that are used to harpoon wild individuals during capture frequently cause serious internal injuries or infections. Moreover, this species often suffers from malnourishment after being subjected to the typical fast during transport. By the time a mandarin arrives at the retailer, it may be (even with the most devoted, professional care) beyond the point of no return.

For these reasons and more, it is always a good idea to opt for an aquacultured mandarin fish. One could argue that it is always better to go with cultured livestock; but in the case of mandarins, the difference between captive-raised and wild are enormous. The biggest, and most notable, difference here is in the mandarin fish’s diet and feeding habits.

Wildcaught specimens might eventually begin to feed, but never accept anything other than live foods. Some wild individuals might not ever resume feeding in the aquarium at all, perishing in very short time. Aquaculture fish that have been raised in captivity, on the other hand, are far less finicky. They are comparatively voracious eaters, even greedily accepting frozen (that is, dead) items such as cyclops, small mysis or baby brine shrimp. Captive bred mandarin, being completely reared in an aquarium environment, might even arrive already trained to feed on prepared items such as fish pellets. Opportunistically nabbing these extra food items when available will afford the aquacultured fish a few extra, precious calories; it will not, however, provide a substitute for the continuous availability of live items such as live copepods.

From the shape of their mouths to the function of their digestive tracts, mandarins are specially adapted to feed on microcrustaceans such as live copepods and amphipods. While studies have revealed that the mandarin fish’s diet includes a fairly wide variety of critters (even baby snails), pods always form the bulk of their diet. Because their prey is so tiny, they must eat a very large number of them to fulfill their dietary intake requirements. Indeed, in the wild as in the aquarium, mandarins begin hunting as soon as the sun comes up and do not stop until sunset. Wildcaught and captive bred mandarin will—and must—feed constantly.

In captivity, heavy predation by even a single mandarin can significantly reduce pod populations. Even if the keeper periodically adds new pods to the system (as they should do), the population might not remain at a density capable of supporting the mandarin over the long term. As numbers of pods in the tank decrease, the fish must expend more time and more energy to locate its next bite. If pod numbers get critically low, the mandarin will struggle to meet its metabolic needs and begin to starve. Aside from general lethargy, a telltale sign of starvation in a mandarinfish is a noticeable loss of body mass; this will show in aquaculture fish as well as wildcaught, as a sunken belly and long indentations on each side of its back.

This is where the supplementary offering of frozen/prepared foods can make all the difference. A few additional bites of frozen brine shrimp might help to give a newly arrived (i.e. recently shipped and very hungry) mandarin a much-needed boost. If used regularly, foods such as this can also help to keep captive bred mandarin healthy and plump over the long run. Varying a mandarin fish’s diet in this manner might additionally serve to ensure that it is getting all of the vitamins and minerals it needs. What is most important is that the item does not exceed the animal’s miniscule bite size.

Due to the animal’s small stomach (i.e. inability to gorge) as well as its need to eat nonstop, frozen/prepared foods should be considered to be snacks only.

Though these items can be of huge benefit, they only comprise a fraction of the animal’s diet; even in captivity, pods will always be their bread and butter. Therefore, the keeper should ensure maximal feeding opportunities for their mandarin by regularly adding a diversity of live microcrustaceans to the system. For this, a mixed-species, live harpacticoid (i.e. bottom-dwelling) copepod product such as Poseidon’s Feast is ideal. Remember: if you cannot easily and quickly find pods crawling on the glass of the tank, then your mandarin probably won’t, either.

It could also do considerable good to occasionally offer live “treat” items. Quality live baby brine shrimp such a Nano Brine can not only add to their diet, but provide valuable behavioral enrichment (particularly for the chase they give!).

For sure, the greatest challenge of keeping a wildcaught or captive bred mandarin fish is feeding it properly. The easiest way to accomplish this is to provide both a continuous supply of live pods and frequent feedings of a frozen or prepared fish food. Of course, to be sure that the fish will accept the latter fare, one should acquire a captive-raised aka aquacultured fish such as a Biota Captive-Bred Green Mandarin. When purchased at AlgaeBarn, these mandarins not only come with a 100% Alive-On-Arrival Guarantee and a 7-Day Health Guarantee, but have also underwent a one-week observation period to ensure that they are healthy and eating before they are offered for sale.

Starting with a sturdy, tank-conditioned, disease-free individual that is eating well will give you the very best odds of enjoying your mandarinfish for many years!

Seen a mandarin searching and hunting their pray is a very fun experience as they are always in a search for a snack. Now with the Biotas Breed it’s even easier to keep them healthy and with a constant supply of pods it’s a recipe to succeed.

Keeping a Mandarin has always been one of my dreams but been extremely concerned with feeding. But now that I have my sump all set up with Macro algae I think I am ready. Great information and well put together. I wish there were more species that are captive bred.

Mandarins are very beautiful creatures don’t be fooled by their looks because they are very Territorial and having a kit put together specially for them is it a very wise investment to help sustain them in a saltwater aquarium.

Having a pair in my saltwater aquarium would be awesome opposed to just one because I really like how they swim and how they look are very beautiful. people don’t have a high success rate due to the fact that they are finicky eaters and providing customers with this option to purchase mandarins along with copepods is a very intelligent idea thank you very much.

Algaebarn has superior customer service and excellent packaging. Algaebarn definitely understands how important it is to provide mandarins with the ultimate feeding package because they are finicky eaters.

Feeding is so important the type of food they eat it’s hard to keep alive in a tank there for continued to add live cocopa and other like food it’s a recomended to keep this fish alive thanks algae bars for providing us with all this information

Mandarins are the main reason I switched over from all freshwater tanks to now both fresh & saltwater setups. Definitely the prettiest of all the marine fish plus they have great little personalities on them!

I’ve had my Mandarin for about a year now. She’s not captive bred but luckily I’ve been able to get her to eat live baby & adult brine shrimp, frozen mysis & bloodworms. She also still loves to pick at pods all day though. Next Mandarin I get will definitely be a captive bred one.